


My Sandwich

by Blueyedgurl



Series: Fluffy one shots [5]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Co-workers, F/M, Fluff, Prompt Fill, Sandwich thief Rey, Sandwiches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 08:07:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25540024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blueyedgurl/pseuds/Blueyedgurl
Summary: @reylo_promptsSomeone took Ben's turkey sandwich at work, he is infuriated and eager for revenge, until he finds out it was Rey then those feelings no longer exist.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Fluffy one shots [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1849954
Comments: 24
Kudos: 110





	My Sandwich

Rey felt bad at first. She had forgotten her lunch and didn’t have the money to go get herself something else. Despite working full time, grad school was a drain on her funds. So she did what anyone in her predicament would do. She looked in the fridge. Surely there was an expired yogurt or lonely cheese stick, maybe an abandoned apple. Something to sate her until she got home tonight around 10pm.

There wasn’t. The cleaning crew must have cleaned the fridge, she could have swore there was a Jell-O of questionable age in there just the other day.

There was no long abandoned food, but there was an absolute monstrosity of a sandwich. It looked delicious in the large clear lunch container. Surely, whoever brought it couldn’t possibly eat the whole thing. 

Rey would not admit to herself in this moment that she could have ate the whole thing. 

So, she didn’t feel as bad as she should have when she took half of it. It was already cut in half, just waiting for her to take it. She didn’t have to try to tear it or try to discretely find a knife before the staff lounge filled with her co-workers and most certainly the owner of said sandwich.

No one in the office could have possibly attempted to eat the whole thing. Most of her coworkers were fairly diet conscious, half of them went for little walks together on their breaks. At least that’s what she told herself as she devoured her find in the copy room.

8It was good too. It had what had to be fresh turkey and lots of veggies and some sort of fancy mustard. This was much better than the ramen she could afford and often ate. She could feel herself becoming energized as her body digested the first real vegetables she had since Finn made her eat that veggie pizza last week. 

She snuck back to her desk before anyone could notice where she had been, not really noticing a whole lot of people. Just Ben and he rarely paid attention to her.

When everyone was settling at their desk, she had heard that Ben practically pushed the fridge over and stormed out of the room. That seemed odd, even for him with his temper.

No. She told herself. It couldn’t have possibly been his sandwich. Monsters don’t require human food, she told herself smugly. 

It wasn’t that he was terrible per say. He just had a terrible temper and no people skills. He was usually cold and gruff towards her even though she couldn’t recall a time when she had made his work life more difficult. 

Though now that she though about it. He was like that with everyone. 

She didn’t let herself focus too much on him being the only one in the office that could have ate that whole sandwich. He was a big guy. Tall, broad and the way his thighs filled out his work pants it was obvious he worked out. 

No, no. It was not his sandwich. It was definitely his sandwich.

She pushed the guilt down, well at least now he had a reason to be rude to her. She had finally earned it.

Ben

Who the fuck would take half of his sandwich? If one were going to take something, just take the whole thing. Don’t be so cowardly about it. Or worse yet try to be nice while taking something that wasn’t yours.

He took his lunch and slammed the fridge shut. It wobbled on its feet before settling at an odd angle from the wall. He really didn’t realize his own strength sometimes.

He took his half-sandwich while glaring at everyone in the room. He noted those who didn’t make eye contact, and went and ate at his desk.

He pretended not to notice when Niima slunk out of the copy room with a drop of mustard on her top. He felt his shoulders slump, of course it was her. He struggled with being outright angry with her. 

He was standoffish with, of course, but he would not go out of his way to be nice either. They worked together and she was younger than him by a few years. Young enough that he had overheard her tell other workers that she was in grad school. Which is why she needed to be out the door early on Tuesdays and Thursdays and why she always looked exhausted on Wednesdays and Fridays. 

He tried to tell himself that he didn’t care how she looked. But he couldn’t help but notice the dark circles under her eyes and that she was always a kind of thin that was a bit alarming to him. He knew she ate, usually packet ramen or whatever sweets people would bring in for birthdays and holidays. But never anything substantial. 

So maybe he felt a little smug about her eating his sandwich on whole grain artisan bread. Stone ground mustard, tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach (lettuce was a waste really), and turkey that he had roasted himself. 

He liked to make his own bread too but often found himself just not having the time. He sighed to himself, ate what was left of his lunch and told himself he wasn’t going to think about it anymore.

Rey

The rest of the week passed without incident, she didn’t forget her lunch again and even brought a few extra packets to keep in her desk, just in case.

The weird thing was on Friday when she came in there was a coffee and muffin on her desk. The coffee was still hot, she had thought that maybe someone set it down and forgotten it. But the people who were there seemed to look at her as if she had three head when she asked aloud who’s it was. 

She wasn’t about to let a gift of food or coffee go to waste and she took an admittedly too big of a bite out of the muffin, dropping crumbs onto her desk. There was no graceful way to eat them, of that she was certain.

The muffin was good, it had raspberries in it and was bigger than her fist. It was obviously from one of those fancy coffee shops. The coffee was good too, whoever had gotten it had put cream and a tad bit of sugar in it. Just how she liked it. She tried not to feel emotional about it but when you’ve spent your whole life being ignored, nice gestures were not something you took for granted.

Especially when there were no strings attached, and how could there be? She couldn’t owe anyone if she couldn’t even say who brought this for her.

Ben

He couldn’t say what compelled him to pick her up breakfast and coffee when he went in to place his weekly bread order. It just… looked like something she would like. And she smiled softly when she sipped her coffee, confirming he got the milk to sugar ratio right. He had seen her enough at the coffee maker to know how she took it, and the coffee here was terrible so he may have opted to not put as much sugar in. 

He did not miss the pinched brow and pouted lip as she ate the muffin. Why was she sad? Did it taste bad, he honestly didn’t believe that, that bakery was good, nothing they did was subpar. Maybe he’d get her something else next time.

Next time. Why was he thinking of next time? 

The girl ate half his sandwich and now he was bringing her breakfast and coffee with plans to bring her more? When he barely spoke to her. He tried not to anyways. She was always so bright and cheery that he usually felt a bit dumb next to her. It wasn’t like he wasn’t smart. He just did not enjoy anything nearly as much as she enjoyed the littlest things. 

The way she squealed in glee when those promotional pens came with the screen cleaner for hair. Or that time someone got flowers for their birthday and she had to go admire them. The way she hummed around the first bite of her ramen like it was good and not liquid salt. He felt like he wasn’t equal to her. He was just a grump who scowled at everyone. 

When she first started working for the company he thought of her as a bit of a scavenger. She was always grabbing pens and post-its off his desk, but his cold demeanor eventually chased her away like it did everyone else and his desk was left in peace.

Just how he preferred it. Or so he thought.

Rey

A couple of weeks passed by as usual. It was finals week and so she had spent the whole weekend cramming and finishing up final projects for her classes. She barely had any time to eat or sleep all weekend. She wished she had the funds for something besides Ramen, but her splurge money was already set aside for next semester’s tuition. It was an impossible thing for her to risk. She just had one semester left and then she could eat actual food on a regular basis.

She got to her desk and put the ramen for the week in her drawer and noticed a note. 

“Please check the fridge.” It was in beautifully done handwriting on a non-descript post it. Her heart raced and she looked around. Again, nobody was acting strange or watching her, so she went to the refrigerator and opened it.

There was a paper lunch bag with her name on it, written in the same lovely hand. She swallowed hard and picked up the bag and peeked in side, a whole lunch sat there staring back and her. 

She was overwhelmed she didn’t know how to respond. How could anyone know that her weekend was hell and that her week would be too. At least until Thursday night when she turned in her last final.

She felt herself becoming overwhelmed and walked briskly out of the staff lounge and to the bathroom, nearly colliding with one of her co-workers on the way. She mumbled her apology not even realizing who the victim of her clumsiness was.

That morning the office was tense. Ben was a dark storm over everyone’s head. The tension in the office was palpable and she had heard him snip multiple times at those around him. When lunch came he didn’t even move from his desk. She wondered why he was in such a terrible mood.

She grabbed her gifted lunch out of the refrigerator and decided to eat it at her desk. She didn’t want to answer questions and comments about what she was eating. She unpacked it bit by bit and set it on her desk. A container of fruit, a baggie of veggies, a giant chocolate cookie, and finally wedged in the bottom, a beautifully made sandwich. That’s when the pieces fell into place. The person who made her the sandwich had known she had taken theirs… They must have given her the muffin. They had…. Ben. She looked around and didn’t see him and knew from his attitude all day that he wasn’t about to eat with everyone in the staff lounge. So, she hastily packed up her food and went to go find him. She checked the copy room and he wasn’t there and then walked to the stairwell. Nobody used it unless the elevator was broken, or they were avoiding running into someone. And sure enough, his large form was hunched over itself as he sat on one of the steps.

Ben

He moody all day, storming and raging. Why didn’t Rey like it? Was it terrible? Maybe she had allergies. Maybe she knew it was from him and since he had been so rude to her, she hated that he had made it for her. 

He was having his own terrible thought spiral for lunch as he sat in the stairwell. It was for the best, the less people who had to deal with him the better. But despite his all-consuming thoughts he couldn’t ignore the unmistakable slam of the stairwell door. He tried to ignore it but when the person didn’t make their way down the stairs he looked up.

It was her. Rey. Her lunch bag in hand and quite a bit more rumpled than he had left it.

“You.” She said softly. It was near accusatory with its certainty. And he suddenly worried if this was reportable to HR as harassment. He’d quit, he could hate his job wherever he worked, this one didn’t matter. She could stay, she seemed to like it here well enough.

There was a long drawn out silence where he realized she was waiting for him to speak.

“Me?” He was not going to win any Olympic games where speaking was involved. 

“You made me this?” She held up her bag and he just nodded slowly, fearful of what came next. Her lip wobbled, why was she sad? He didn’t want her to be sad. She looked down at the ground and he wanted to kick his own ass for making her feel this way.

“Yes.” It wasn’t a question this time, he’d take accountability for what he did. Whatever it was. He was his father’s son, mistakes were inevitable.

She sniffled at him and then her face broke into a smile and he felt his heart crack just enough to make some room to let her in.

“Thank you. I thought you didn’t even like me and then you did something like this… You left me the muffin too, didn’t you?” 

He nodded a bit dumbfounded at her talking to him like she didn’t hate him. 

“How did you know?” She asked, him she was fidgeting.

“Know what?” He asked, his brain still moving like it was in quicksand.

“About this week being terrible?” Her eyes looked like she was holding back tears.

“I overheard you talking to Poe about it being finals week and that you’d be flexing your time. I thought maybe you could use something besides ramen.” He said, his lip pulling to on one side in an approximation of a half-smile.

“I have to admit, I ate half of your sandwich that one time.” She said a bit guiltily.

“I know.”

“You knew?”

He huffed a laugh and nodded.

“You had mustard on your shirt.” She had the decency to look a bit embarrassed and a pretty blush spread across her cheeks.

‘Yet you still fed me?” She stepped a bit closer to him. And he shrugged, unable to speak under the intensity of her stare. Her face was suddenly serious. 

“I can’t return the favor, not until after school is done next semester.”

“You don’t need to do anything Rey. Really, I didn’t do it, so you’d have to owe me. If you never even found out it would have been fine.”

“But you were stormy and terrible all morning.”

“I thought I had made you sad, with that” He nodded to the bag in her hand.

“Oh, that was you I ran into this morning. No, you misunderstood. It’s just overwhelming, for reasons I don’t wish to get into. But they were happy tears?” She said it like a question, as if she was unsure how to explain it to him. He wanted her to explain it to him. “Not sad tears, or at least you didn’t make me sad.” She said her head tilted. 

“Oh, ok.” Relief flooded him. 

“Can I eat with you?” She asked and he nodded and scooted over to give her room to sit next to him.

“You don’t have your lunch.” She noted. 

“I wasn’t hungry.” He said looking at his hands.

“I’ve seen how big your sandwiches are, you better go get it before I do.” She said as she bit into a carrot stick. She smirked at him as she chewed, and his heart fluttered and he realized she was teasing. He nodded and got up to go get his lunch.

Rey

She was a bit surprised it was Ben. She had considered him initially with the muffin but his attitude toward her hadn’t changed at all so she figured it couldn’t have been him. Plus, it was way too rom-com for her life when she had always lived like an afterschool special.

When Ben came back, he looked a bit surprised. It was like he had expected her to have disappeared in the short time he was gone, rather than sit there and demolish the rest of her carrots and celery.

When he sat down, he opened the container that held his sandwich and she dug out hers.

She moaned out when she bit into it and when she looked at Ben, she could see the tips of his ears turn red and his mouth open just a bit while he stared at her.

“Sorry, my roommate often tells me I have terrible manners.” She offered before she bit into her sandwich again.

“No, need to apologize,” he choked out.

They ate in comfortable silence. Ben wasn’t overly chatty but he didn’t seemed to mind her presence.

Still there were questions that nagged at her.

“So, I guess you don’t actually hate me then, huh?”

“Nope, not at all. I’m just awkward and I think it’s best if I keep away from most people. I tend to say the wrong thing, push people away.” He shrugged.

“Are you still going to keep away from me?” She watched his throat bob with a swallow.

“Only if this makes you uncomfortable and you want me to.”

“Do you want to stay away?”

He did a funny thing with mouth before looking over at her nervously and shook his head.

“No. I don’t want to.” He said rather quietly.

“Good. I don’t want to either.” She bit into the last bite of her sandwich rather determinedly.

Despite her protests he brought her lunch all through finals week and she ate with him on their little step in the stairwell. She preferred to be away from the prying eyes and gossip of their coworkers. She wasn’t ready to share him, yet.

Lunches in the stairwell turned into lunches in the park. Then when graduation came Rey took Ben out to celebrate with dinner and movie. She treated to show her appreciation for all of the lunches and coffee he had brought her over the semester. That night she stayed at his place and they made out on his couch and in his bed.

Then lunches in the stairwell ended with kisses before returning to work. Those quickly turned into sleep overs during the week since they could drive into work together anyways. Then one day Ben got very nervous and spilled half their open bottle of wine all over the counter and when she turned to help him clean-up, he had a ring box in his hand. 

Of course, she said yes. 

Their life was spent sharing smiles and food and secrets that nobody knew. She wouldn’t trade it for a thing.


End file.
